Top Tips for Voice SEO

November 01, 2018

In March, Forbes billed voice SEO as one of the most important trends in search engine optimization of 2018. Indeed, as the year winds down, we have seen that voice SEO is not just a fad, but the new direction being taken by top marketers. 11 million users purchased devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo and Echo Dot during the 2017 holidays, and this year is shaping up to mirror that spending. So, it’s the requirement of any website owner to focus on the voice SEO strategies by using top quality SEO tools like domain authority checker and content comparison checker.

As consumers use these smart speakers and their digital assistants to browse the web, SEO has evolved to include voice search. This means that your translated websites will need to be optimized for voice technology as well as traditional keyed searches. Search engine optimization has always been a challenge, and undertaking SEO in other languages is a fine art. Now, with the emergence of voice SEO, tackling voice search technology head-on is essential for staying ahead of the game. A translation agency can make all the difference in this respect, with professional linguists incorporating voice SEO practices into their translation work.

Voice search is not just the latest infatuation; it is the future of browsing. Professional translators who are also SEO experts are supporting the growth of this $600 million market.

Translation and Voice SEO – How Did We Get Here?

SEO itself has been through many changes since the internet rolled out in the mid-1990s. At that time, there were many different search engines to choose from: Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Yahoo, Alta Vista, and more. To rank on these engines, you sometimes had to submit your page manually to index. Another popular way to rank was to stuff your content full of keywords. SEO was as simple as this: If your competitor had a keyword in their article 100 times, you made sure your keyword was mentioned 150 times. Today, such keyword stuffing is a terrible idea. Google arrived on the scene in the late 1990s, and its algorithm and web crawler revolutionized SEO. This was, of course, long before web translation services were a big deal.

By 2015, smartphones had taken over, and for the first time, mobile searches surpassed desktop searches. Today, translation in mobile marketing is an essential, as is optimizing sites for mobile. That brings us to voice search. Apple's Siri was quickly followed by Google’s own (currently nameless) interactive assistant. Consumers quickly adopted the use of voice-to-text to perform queries and complete tasks. Voice search has become a common way to browse the web and has naturally led to new SEO methods, due to the different way that users were posing questions. This meant that translating websites and optimizing them for voice queries in other languages had to evolve as well.

The Challenges of Voice SEO for Translation Professionals

Voice search is different from typing into a browser because it takes place conversationally. The terminology used is usually in the format of a question, rather than a key phrase. Because our way of searching is changing so quickly, it is essential that, when working in multiple languages, translations adequately capture the attention of the target market. Translators working on content with SEO in mind run into specific issues that monolingual SEO specialists don’t.

One such problem is that keywords and phrases which rank highly in one country don’t always have the same importance in another country. Thus translators need to perform keyword research in each target language they are working on. Another thing to keep in mind is that Google isn’t the only search engine on the block. Search engines like Yandex & Baidu dominate certain foreign markets, so it is essential for a translator to be familiar with the algorithms of these as well, for both typed and voice SEO.

Translators Need to Pay Attention to Google Snippets

Another area where traditional SEO differs from voice SEO is in relation to snippets. A snippet is that little bit of text that fills the coveted answer box position at the top of Google’s search results. This is the dominant voice search result for a particular query & content is it's important element. It answers a question that results in a two-way conversation. A featured snippet ranks in position zero on Google and should contain concise information. This is why it is so vital for translators to assist their clients with keyword research and with discovering how questions are phrased. Once this has been determined, the answer should be crafted as precisely as possible in each target language.

Other Translation Tips for Voice SEO

Follow the 5W’s

When translating your content for voice search, you should use keywords that are built around the 5W’s: who, what, where, when, and why. Remember that your users are going to be looking for answers to questions. Instead of typing “spring break plane tickets” into the search bar, they will be asking a question like, “When is the best time to buy cheap plane tickets for spring break?” By crafting the 5W’s into your keyword phrases, you will have a much better chance of reaching your audience. Your content should be up to the mark when you communicating with your customers. You can easily write a query email by using tiny text generator tool.

Add More FAQs

Expand the translated FAQ content of your website so that it will capture traffic from voice searches. Remember that you may also be able to build the answer into a blog post or even a byline. FAQs content must contain perfect quality texts, and you can use grammar checker for this purpose.

Keep Up the Research

Voice search is still in the early phases of development, so companies (and the translators they use) should keep abreast of everything they can about voice SEO. Continually researching and monitoring search results will give you clues as to what new content should be added over time.

Localization

We know that people search differently when speaking. Terms like “near me” have opened up a whole new set of keyword phrases. Whenever you can, use this type of phrasing by making sure that localization has been undertaken for your webpages. A strategy that is built around understanding what people want and how they go about asking for it in their own language is more important than ever. Effective localization will eventually help to gain higher SEO Score.

Don’t Use Sales Language

It can be hard for a seasoned marketer to switch gears and turn off the pitch, but customers don’t speak into their phones to get sales messages. They are looking for something they want or need. They are not so much interested in what you have as in what it can do for them. When optimizing translated content for voice search, it is necessary to take a more relaxed, open, and conversational approach.

Where Is Voice SEO Headed?

It is estimated that half of all searches will be performed through voice by 2020. While nobody can predict the future, there is enough evidence to indicate that voice technology will continue to evolve and improve rapidly in the coming years. While it will likely not replace traditional digital marketing strategies, it is another interface that will add additional tasks to a professional translator’s optimization strategies.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is built into most mobile devices that are introduced to the market now, making them voice-search friendly. Google is capable of interpreting a large variety of search queries through voice, and its speech recognition technology is improving rapidly on a daily basis. Companies that are already applying SEO strategtinyes will benefit immensely from implementing the extra steps needed for optimizing their translated content for voice searches.

Author Bio

Louise Taylor is head of content for Tomedes, a translation company with clients around the world. The Tomedes website is available in 13 languages. Louise writes for the English version of the Tomedes Blog, covering everything from translation industry updates to SEO requirements.

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